grocery-store

Photo Credit: KSquier

This article was included in the Festival of Frugality #164.

My Two Dollars posted a story last week on what your grocery store may not be telling you. I thought it was an interesting topic and wanted to explore price books to help people become aware of possible savings in their grocery bills. Many people think of price book and think it’s overly tedious and don’t think it’s time well spent. I disagree and wanted to help get your price book started. 

I also collaborated with Simply Forties for a real life guide on creating a price book using Google Docs. She has put a lot of effort into this and I think it’ll be a real help.

Having a price book isn’t complicated. Here are a few steps to get you started:

  1. Write a list of the staples that you get every shopping trip, like meats, bread, juice, produce, snack ,etc.
  2. Visit your normal grocery stores and record the price and the size amount for each item.
  3. You can load up the data on a spreadsheet and figure out who has the deal by comparing unit prices (apples to aples comparison). 
  4. Base your shopping trips on the price book guide on who has the best value for certain products. 
  5. As a comparison, sign up for MVP/VIP etc emails from the grocery stores to see if any sales are on your grocery and if they are a better deal than the price book listings

You’ll discover trends on certain items and where you’ll most likely find the best deal. Costco and Wal-Mart can have good deals on dry foods that last for a bit. For our more time sensitive foods, we tend to go to Wal-Mart or take advantage of Harris Teeter’sVIP specials. I’m going to be checking the prices as we have our monthly grocery shop coming up.

Using a price book along with paper and printable online grocery coupons can draticall cut down your bills. 

If you’re looking for a wonderful real life example of how to construct a successful price book, Simply Forties has all the information

As always, please feel free to leave your tips in the comments section. We can learn from one another.

If you’re looking for more information on price books, please check out:

Laura Martinez

Laura Martinez